NY Food Truck Lunch: Cheesesteak From Shorty’s On Wheels

Perry, the voice behind New York Street Food, brings you his latest review on New York City food trucks.

CBSNewYork recently brought you the news of a Philly-centric sports bar with two NYC locations, prepping to open a food truck called Shorty’s On Wheels. In addition to classic Philly cheesesteaks, they have Italian roast pork sandwiches, chicken sandwiches and even broccoli rabe veggie sandwiches, with lots of different toppings available to suit your fancy.

The truck has been on and off the street for the past couple of weeks getting their act together, but we caught up with them Thursday on 47th St & Park Ave. We got a classic Philly cheesesteak for $9 and added mushrooms for $.75.

(credit: New York Street Food)

Before getting my sandwich, the owner Evan Stein showed me around the truck. He was especially proud of the bread from Le Bus that’s brought up from Philly and baked fresh right there on the truck. Yes, there’s actually a bread oven on board!

Unfortunately, the bread oven sucks a lot of juice from the generator, and within the first couple of minutes we were there, the generator and all electricity on the truck went down twice. They brought it back up quickly, but the first outage happened right as I ordered, and my order didn’t go into the system.

power down (credit: New York Street Food)

I told them my order, but without the automated ordering system, I ended up with the wrong cheese type. Everything else was correct, so let’s chalk this up to a new truck “working out the kinks.”

When I say the wrong cheese, that means provolone instead of cheese whiz, which isn’t really a problem. I actually prefer provolone, but wanted to try cheese whiz for that authentic Philly cheesesteak. I know provolone is authentic too, but the only way I would eat “wiz” is on a top-notch cheesesteak.

Opening up the sandwich, it was very hot and steamy, and I had to be careful not to burn my mouth.

Pulling apart the two halves, the provolone stretched nicely, and I wondered why I ordered wiz in the first place. The sandwich was loaded with thinly-sliced beef, plenty of cheese, and I’m really glad I ordered the mushrooms. They added an earthiness to the sandwich.

The bread was as good as you would expect from a freshly-baked loaf. It was soft, but held everything together just fine. Evan told me they bake fresh bread at least once an hour.

(credit: New York Street Food)

Shorty’s On Wheels is the real deal! Their cheesesteak sandwich is as authentic and delicious as it gets – and there’s lots more I want to try on the menu. Evan told me they eventually want to do breakfast too, with egg and broccoli rabe sandwiches and things like that.

The sandwiches are in the $9-11 range, which is towards the high side for a food truck, but the sandwiches are large, the food is fresh, and I was very satisfied by the end of the meal. Two people with smaller appetites than mine (meaning normal appetites) could probably split one of these sandwiches and an order of fries and be very happy afterwards.